Baby

By Pastor Paul Gauche

Today’s Word: Baby as in… that baby, The Gift that inspires every other gift.

I wish you could see what I see.

The Salvation Army is in the thick of the Annual Christmas Toy and Joy Shop. I have a front-row seat for the gift drive-through and pickup lanes outside my window.

I wish you could see what I see.

Imagine a family needing gifts. Their online requests direct them to Prince of Peace Lutheran Church. Several volunteers greet them as they drive into the parking lot and into two pickup lanes. These intrepid, hatted, gloved, warm-coated, booted volunteers ensure everything runs smoothly as they welcome, direct, interact with, and serve the guests. The goal is to have fun while ensuring the online gift orders are completed on-site. Inside the building, more volunteers are completing gift orders. They are placing items in bags and delivering them to even more volunteers who deliver the gifts back outside to the expectant families in their cars.

I wish you could see what I see.

For the past three days, the weather here has been challenging. Temperatures hovering just above freezing have meant rain instead of snow. But as the temperatures have fluctuated from just above to just below freezing, the rain-turned-to-ice-turned-to-snow has made things especially sketchy. And yet, for the past three days, families have come. There has been a steady line of vehicles from dawn until dark. Even now, as the snow continues to fall in these final hours, the volunteers are steady at their tasks.

Now, as I write, the parking lot is quiet. The snow is still falling, but the parking lot is quiet. And I’m thinking about all these families, the servers, and the served.

What is this all about? Can we draw a line from each of these moments in the parking lot back to another moment that inspires all of this generosity, love, and kindness? We can. It all goes back to Bethlehem, where a baby was born. That baby, The Gift, is the gift that inspires every other gift given. Do you see what I see?

#100days50words

Paul Gauche is the Pastor of Life Transitions at Prince of Peace. His posts are part of his #100days50words project, where he blogs about a different word each week. You can follow his project on Instagram (@pgauche) or his blog, Thriving Rhythms.